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The Face of the Enemy
Garibaldi is faced with the decision of whether or not to betray Sheridan. Franklin and Lyta arrive on Mars with their cargo of frozen telepaths. Cast Starring *Bruce Boxleitner as Captain John Sheridan *Claudia Christian as Commander Susan Ivanova *Jerry Doyle as Michael Garibaldi *Mira Furlan as Ambassador Delenn *Richard Biggs as Dr. Stephen Franklin *Stephen Furst as Vir Cotto *Bill Mumy as Lennier *Andreas Katsulas as Ambassador G'Kar *Peter Jurasik as Ambassador Londo Mollari *Jeff Conaway as Security Chief Zack Allan *Jason Carter as Marcus Cole *Patricia Tallman as Lyta Alexander Special Guest Stars *Efrem Zimbalist Jr. as William Edgars *Walter Koenig as Bester Guest Starring *Richard Gant as Captain Edward MacDougan *Denise Gentile as Lise Hampton-Edgars *Marjorie Monaghan as Number One *Diana Morgan as Alison Higgins *David Purdham as Captain James *Ricco Ross as Captain Leo Frank *Mark Schneider as Wade Featuring *Harlan Ellison as Psi Cop Cast Notes *Regular characters who appear in this episode are John Sheridan, Susan Ivanova, Michael Garibaldi, Delenn, Stephen Franklin, Lennier, Marcus Cole and Lyta Alexander. Summary Introduction As Capt. John Sheridan's forces approach Earth, the fighting grows more fierce. Out-gunned and unable to flee, President Clark's remaining ships still refuse to surrender. Sheridan and Marcus Cole on the White Star 2 wonder why they keep fighting. Meanwhile, Dr. Stephen Franklin and Lyta Alexander have arrived on Mars again with their disturbing cargo. At Edgars Industries, Michael Garibaldi matter-of-factly informs Edgars that John Sheridan's trap has been baited with his father. Pleased, Edgars again promises Garibaldi the elusive reward of the whole truth, and assures him it's the right thing to do. "I think the last guy got thirty pieces of silver for the same job," Garibaldi remarks with distaste as he leaves. Act I Sheridan is still in disbelief of the opposition refusing to stand down. He orders them to stand down again. One captain, Leo Frank, finally breaks silence and challenges him, believing that Sheridan is only going to execute them if they surrender. Sheridan's new ally, MacDougan, interjects and convinces the young captain that it is safe to stand down just as a new ship jumps into the melee. To Sheridan's relief, it is his old ship, the , come to join his fleet. Franklin and Alexander arrive at the Mars Resistance. Number One is livid to discover that Franklin has brought a "teep" (telepath) into her facility without even thinking of consulting her. The dozens of frozen telepaths he brings are equally unwelcome. Sheridan meets Captain James on the Agamemnon, and they share a fond reunion when he goes on board. He is still there when Garibaldi's transmission catches up with him. In it, Garibaldi explains that Clark's people have captured Sheridan's father, and says he has a rescue plan which requires his presence. Act II Against everyone's advice, Sheridan decides to go to Mars alone, and the Agamemnon agrees to transport him there. Sheridan orders Susan Ivanova to take command of the fleet. The hostility towards Lyta is not limited to Number One, and Franklin is baffled. At dinner, he demands an explanation, but Number One leaves. Lyta explains the Bloodhound Units. Anyone suspected of being in the Resistance is simply picked up and scanned, without any due process of law. Quietly Lyta begins to explain the other things Psi Cops have done. One serial killer of telepaths now lives in an institution, screaming all the time at the "things we planted in his mind." When that happened she left Psi Cops for commercial work, but from then she became afraid of what telepaths are capable of. "Someday there's going to be a war between telepaths and mundanes, Stephen," she predicts direly. Number One comes by and informs them of Sheridan's mission – they are on their own. Ivanova leaves Babylon 5 to take command of the fleet in Sheridan's absence, and Delenn agrees to keep watch over B5 until she returns. Sheridan pilots a fighter down to the surface of Mars, where Garibaldi is waiting in a bar. Shortly after as the Captain sits and begins their conversation, Garibaldi slaps a tranquilizer patch on his hand. Furiously, Sheridan stands and attempts to escape, but the men who have come for him are too many and too strong. Garibaldi just sits in his place and watches impassively as his former friend and CO gets beaten and taken into custody. Act III ISN's gloating over the capture begins almost immediately. Ivanova and Marcus Cole watch in stunned silence, but Ivanova declares the person is expendable, but the job is not. Garibaldi returns to his boss, furiously demanding to be finally told the truth. Edgars and Wade reveal that they have genetically engineered a virus that attacks only telepaths. They have also developed an "antidote" that needs to be administered to infected telepaths every two weeks. Turning telepaths into a virtual slave race is the only way they see to counter the threat of the "death of human liberty and human thought." As a side-effect, by removing Clark's power base in the Psi Corps, they will be free to overturn his government easily. Garibaldi affirms that he is still on board and Edgars informs him that now that Clark is distracted by the capture of Sheridan, he can begin the process of releasing the virus. "The telepath prob--" he utters and stops. Hearing the Holocaustic parallel in his own words, he continues in a broken voice, "The telepath problem...will finally be over." Unbeknownst to them all, a horrified Lise has heard everything from her hiding place behind a wall. When they have left the room Garibaldi sits quietly and pops a cap off his tooth revealing a minuscule transmitter. Lise finds him later waiting stony faced in a tube, where she begs him to help stop her husband. With eerily muted urgency Garibaldi only tells her to go home. Moments later a new passenger joins him and the car leaves the station. The new passenger is Bester and he orders Garibaldi to tell him all that he knows. Act IV Without hesitation, Bester enters into Garibaldi's mind and extracts Edgars' nefarious plan. Even the normally imperturbable Psi Cop is stunned by the extent of this "final solution." Having finished what he came for, Bester muses about what to do with Garibaldi next. "I can feel you, you know...the real you, beating at the inside of your skull, screaming to get out." Should he let Garibaldi free? Should he keep him penned up forever? He explains to Garibaldi what happened when he was captured by the Shadows. Bester got control of Garibaldi during the Shadows' attempt to "adjust" him and managed to handle the procedure on his own terms. That way he could thwart his enemies the Shadows (the virus of Edgars' was likely Shadow technology after all), take revenge on the officers of Babylon 5, and use Garibaldi as a weapon against his other enemies, all in one move. Accentuating his naturally rebellious and suspicious instincts, Bester states, would turn Garibaldi into the perfect tool for digging to the possible anti-telepath conspiracies. The odd messages Garibaldi received from time to time tuned his conditioning until his real personality was completely buried under the new one. And now Bester wonders what to do. Toying for an instant with a gun in Garibaldi's face, Bester comments that now that Garibaldi's friends know he betrayed Sheridan, he "can't go home again." Deciding to let the real Garibaldi free, Bester exits the car and the train leaves the station. Garibaldi sits impassively on the bench. A flash of reality slams his mind. He shakes his head. Then another. And then again. He screams in rage and whacks his head into the wall of the train. Act V When Marcus informs Ivanova that Garibaldi has attempted to contact them, she orders that if he shows up on the station he be shot on sight. In the interim, with Sheridan captured and the fleet in limbo, she vows to finish the job her Captain began. Garibaldi frantically searches Edgars' home for Lise but only finds Edgars dead, the virus removed and Wade, Edgar's assistant, mortally injured on the floor. Wade manages to whisper that Lise hadn't been there when they were attacked. The ISN anchor reports the assassination of William Edgars apparently by the resistance. She also proudly congratulates former Chief Warrant Officer Michael Garibaldi for turning in the renegade Earthforce Captain John Sheridan. While Sheridan continues to be pummeled by his captors, she reports that now that he has been freed of alien influences, being well cared for, and has expressed regret for his actions against his home world. Memorable quotes Continuity * The events Lyta described involving a telepath murderer on the Beta Colony had previously been alluded to by Bester in ("Epiphanies") and were later described in detail in J. Gregory Keyes's novel "Deadly Relations - Bester Ascendant". DVD release This episode, along with the other episodes from season four, has been released on DVD with extensive special features. External Links * Category:Babylon 5 episodes Category:Babylon 5 Season 4 episodes